There is presently an explosion in the number of people that are involved in playing on-line games over the Internet and other networks. These games allow for interactive play between one or more persons within a game. In parallel with this development has come an increase in the amount of signaling and information messages which must be sent over a network in order to enable interactive, on-line gaming to grow. Some of the changes which service providers of such networks face include: (a) how to make on-line gaming more personalized; (b) how to reduce any delays caused by the network; (c) how to increase the interactive nature of such games; and (d) how to use their existing networks to achieve these goals without greatly increasing their costs.
As an example of (a), it is desirable to provide a user who wishes to play an on-line game with the means of knowing when his or her best friends (sometimes referred to as “buddies”) are also on-line and available to play a game. Similarly, if a buddy is on-line and available to play a game it is desirable to be able to initiate such a game very quickly. In so doing, it is desirable to enable a service provider to offer these features without the need to spend a lot of money upgrading or changing their existing network.